Tear tab closure



Jan. 19, 1 1937.

R. w. BRECKENRIDGE TEAR TABCLOSURE Filed Aug. 29, 1 936 r i 1' i! INVENTOR '34 a. ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 19, 1937 UNITED STATES TEAR TAB CLOSURE Robert W. Breckenridge, Ridgewood, N. J., as-

slgnor to Reynolds Metals Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application August 29, 1936, Serial No. 98,497

5 Claims.

This invention relates to tear-tab closures proof, and such closures were not primarily closures adapted to seal contents within the receptacles under heavy gas pressures. Also it has been proposed to insert various lever or prying means in closures of the well known crown type, but such means relating to levering or prying rather than tearing means. The prying or levering means used in connection with caps of the crown type were found difllcult to utilize, expensive to manufacture, and so were never placed in extensive commercial use.

The advantages of sheet metal caps of the type having a relatively elongated annular skirt and adapted to be spun or otherwise positioned in place over a bead upon a container neck, have been long recognized because such caps are cheap to manufacture and easy to apply; however, the difiiculty has been in providing suitable means of removing the caps.

Therefore, it is an object of my invention to provide a preformed sheet metal cap of the type having a cork or equivalent liner, adapted to be spun or otherwise mounted over a bead upon a container neck, and having arelatively strong metal insert between the liner and the cap, such metal insert having a depending tear-tab and adapted, because of its design, to easily and conveniently remove the cap, partially by tearing and partially by lifting the same, without the necessity of peeling the edge of the cap from the container neck.

A further object of my invention is the provision of a cap, as described, particularly adapted to hold gas pressures such as are encountered in highly carbonated beverages. As is well known, such pressures often attain 70 or 80 pounds per square inch, and sometimes run higher.

These and'various other objects and advantages will be readily understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing of preferred embodiments of the inventions, in which modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawing Fig. 1 is a. perspective view of a cap, a metal insert and a liner, illustrating a preferred embodiment of my invention, with a cork liner and a portion of themetal insert shown in dot-dash 5 line;

Fig. 2 is a cross section taken on the line 22 of Fig.

Fig. 3 is a similar section as illustrated in Fig 2, showingfhowever, the cap mounted upon a lo container neck;

Fig. 4 is similar to Fig. 3 but illustrates the cap after a portion of the same has been torn by raising the tear-tab insert;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary cross section taken on 15 line 5+5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 4, with parts of the metal insert shown in dot-dash lines Fig. '7 is a fragmentary perspective view of the 20 preferred form of metal insert; and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view of an alternate form of metal insert.

In these figures, cap i0 is formed with an annular depending flange or skirt ll, of a suit- 25 able material adapted for the usual forming operation, and also preferably adapted to be spun over a'bead, such as indicated as l2, of a container neck I3. I have found that annealed sheet aluminum .007" thick serves this purpose 30 satisfactorily, but it is obvious that. various types and thicknesses of sheet metal may be em ployed. A liner l4, formed of cork or similar material, is placed within cap ll). Detents such as indicated at l5, may be employed to retain the liner within cap ill.

Interposed between liner I4 and cap I0 is a tearing and lifting means, comprising a discshaped fiat metal insert I6 and a depending teartab arm ll formed integrally therewith. The lower portion of tear-tab arm [1 may be formed with corrugations [8. The disc insert i6 is preferably circumferentially cut, as indicated in Fig.

7, to provide a. substantially circular tearing portion Ilia. and two crescent-shaped arms I61) adapted to lift the torn cap H) from head l2 by means of tear-tab arm ll. In the alternate form of disc insert, indicated as l9, and shown in Fig. 8, the disc l9 may be cut with transverse cuts indicated as 20,-so that an elongated strip of material indicated as 2|, forms a continuation of tear-tab arm I1, but such cuts do not extend completely across disc I9, so that at all times tear-tab arm l! and strip 2| are connected with the remaining portions of the disc illustrated as i9, which latter lift the torn cap from bead II. The tear-tab arm I! and disc insert l8 can ordinarily be formed of any deformable, pliable sheet metal material of considerably higher tensile strength than that which forms cap I0. I have found that low-tempered sheet steel of .003" thick will operate satisfactorily. Ifit is desired to make the insert of brass, I have found that sheet brass of .005" or .006" is satisfactory.

In capping operations, the cap 10, liner l4, and insert 16, in the form indicated in Fig. 1, may be placed over containerneck l3, having a bead I2, and there mounted into position by spinning. The tear-tab arm I! has a portion indicated as 23, which is spun against bead i2, and the lower corrugated portion 24 of tear-tab arm I! is thereby tensioned against the container neck 13 as indicated. corrugations l8 not only prevent finger slippage when the bottle user lifts tear-tab ll, but also provides spaces under which a fingernail may be inserted to pry the tear-tab arm I! from the container neck I3. I have found that experimental bottles capped with the closure as described will retain gas pressures running above 100 pounds to the square inch.

In operation, when it is desired to open a container capped in accordance with my invention, tear-tab arm i1 is raised to vertical position as indicated in Fig. 4, with resultant shearing of cap ID as indicated in Fig. 6. The skirt H, where it is spun over tear-tab arm I1, is weakened by the s inning operation and two vertical lines in the skirt indicated as 25 in Fig. 5,"are formed so that the skirt may be easily ruptured by the raising of tear-tab arm il. As raising of arm I! is continued, the inner circular portion Iia bears against cap I!) and makes a circular tear therein, as indicated in Fig. 6. Crescent-shaped arms l6b remain in place, however, between cap and liner i4. When tear-tab arm I! reaches a vertical position, as indicated in Fig. 4, the seal between skirt Ii and bead l2 has been substantially broken, whereupon upward tension applied to arm I'I results in the displacement of the cap as a whole.

The alternate disc insert shown in Fig. 8 also will operate satisfactorily, but since the cap I0 is torn in its center portion in a narrow strip corresponding to strip 2|, the seal between skirt II and bead I2 is not reduced to such an extent as when the circular tearing of the cap as indicated in Fig. 6 is accomplished by a tearing element of a shape similar to 16b.

It is to be understood that while the illustrated forms of the invention which I have described represent certain preferred embodiments, I do not wish to limit myself precisely to the details as shown, since it is obvious that the same may be considerably varied without departing from the spirit of the invention as designed and claimed in the appended claims; also it will be apparent that the metal disc insert instead of being cut, as described, might be perforated or scored instead so that tension may break or rupture the same into tearing and lifting portions. and therefore in the appended claims the term cut is intended to include perforations or "scorings.

I claim 1. In a tear-tab closure, a sheet metal cap adapted to be mounted in place over a bead upon a container neck and to seal containers having substantial gas pressures, comprising a top and a depending skirt formed integrally, a liner for said cap, and tearing and lifting means positioned between said cap and said liner adapted to tear and to liftsaid cap including a tear-tab arm having a portion extending below said depending skirt and a metal disc integral therewith, said disc being cut so as to provide a. tearing portion and a lifting portion.

2. A closure as defined in claim 1 wherein said tear-tab arm is corrugated.

3. A closure as defined in claim 1 wherein said tearing and lifting means is formed of metal having greater tensile strength than said cap.

4. A closure as defined in claim 1 wherein said cap is formed of sheet aluminum about .007 thick and said tearing and lifting means is formed of low-tempered sheet steel about .003" thick.

5. In combination, a preformed sheet metal cap having an integral cover and :3. depending skirt adapted to be mounted over a bead upon a container neck, and means associated therewith adapted for tearing and for lifting the cap from place when capped upon a container, said means comprising a tear-tab arm and a sheet metal disc integrally connected with saidarm, said disc being cut to form a central tearing portion and a marginal lifting portion.

' ROBERT W. BRECKENRIDGE. 

